Altered states of consciousness are experienced all the time. Right now as you are reading this article you are experiencing a state of consciousness that will undoubtedly change the minute your attention moves elsewhere. It’s also true that everything we do to our body such as eating or sleeping, alters our state of consciousness. Your brain is a big pharmacy, pumping out a variety of chemicals which you need to conceive of reality.
I like to explain consciousness simply as the state of being aware. You can be aware of anything, therefore altering consciousness just means a shift in awareness. Become aware of your big toe. There, your consciousness has just been altered. You can have bedroom consciousness, city consciousness, country consciousness, planetary consciousness and even universal or cosmic consciousness. You can easily examine these different modes of consciousness working in people who either seem to be “Small-minded” or “Space-Cases”. Of course, this depends on the level of consciousness that you view them from.
It’s easy to understand consciousness if you imagine the different levels as platforms on which one stands to perceive the world. On the level of the everyday human, things such as money, politics and social status are important. On a higher platform of consciousness that an extraterrestrial from the 5th dimension might see from, these things are hardly relevant to existence. Standing on an even higher platform might be the consciousness on the universe, looking down on everything as equal.
When people mention altered consciousness, they usually think of either psychedelic drugs or yogis who achieve communion with divine presence through meditation. It’s really whatever floats your boat, consciousness could potentially be expanded through a good science fiction novel or by watching a movie about quantum physics.
Human beings have been altering their awareness since the dawn of man. It’s perfectly natural and normal for people to want to see the world from a different angle. It’s even said that human beings first came down from the trees to partake of magic mushrooms, which increased visual acuity. This first alteration in consciousness is said to be the fundamental basis for the first religions of mankind. Anyone who watches children for a good period of time will eventually see them spinning around in an attempt to make themselves dizzy enough to fall down. This is also a fun and cheap way to alter consciousness in adults as well.
Related articles:
Techniques for consciousness expansion
God as a state of higher consciousness
Can you make God change his mind?
